Your pets

Yes Baz is a whopper but is the archetypal gentle giant. Luckily for me he is just as cuddly as he looks. Its like having a teddy come to life.

jane sitting nicely for once. BTW the little one is a girl though not very ladylike!

My 3 are : German Shepherd, Maremma and mixed breed ( supposedly 1/2 Maremma )!

How dare you roses I'll have you know tha these are pure bred Lhasa Apsos. They are looking a bit moth-eaten I'll grant you, due partly to their advanced ages but mainly due to a very bad clip I gave them when their usual groomer was poorly.

Haha....so sorry, have never seen a Lhasa Apso so wouldn't have known that, are they from the same litter?
Have never heard of a Maremma either, where are they from?
Now, I did know those were spaniels Nonna Springers?

Hang on a minute, the Llaso Apso in Glamma's pic looks like an entirely different breed to yours Anya now I am confused.

They come in a variety of colours and need clipping every few weeks or they look like walking hearth rugs roses and Glamma's is asleep (their preferred mode)

Ah, so they can be long haired as well.I may like a walking hearthrug, sounds cute.But hard work if they need a lot of clipping ( otherwise they would resemble cousin IT)

Is Marmarks dog ( sitting with a Yorkie) a Llaso?

Maremma is an Italian breed used originally for guarding sheep in the mountains.Abruzzese is a similar breed.These days the breeds are more or less the same, like German Shepherd and Alsatian have been classed together according to the kennel club.

Better picture of Maggie May the Maremma.

This is our lovely grand-dog Ellie making herself at home in our house. She's a cross between a Shih Tsu and a Westie - a Shittie?

Oh dear Margsus !

Brilliant Margus

Now there's cute!

Here she is in another pose - who could resist that face?!

My adorable working cocker spaniel Georgie.

This is Wiser, my 17yr old Parson Russell terrier. She's a sleepy old girl these days.

Where would we be without our animal companions? Time to get another one OP?

Our Kiwi - he's almost 5 and doesn't know yet that we are thinking of getting him a friend!

If he did know kitty he may be packing his things and leaving!
Yes Jane seeing all these great pics does really make me want one.
DD has a Birman cat ( not sure of spelling) and other DD wants to get two Maine Coons this year, however I had no idea how huge they were ( hope that she realises!)
What a lot of unusual dog breeds you all have.

We had a Birman once. She was a right little tart. She made no bones about preferring men and wouldn't even look at me if DH or DS were around! What a character she was though. A right little madam. I loved her.
Maine Coons are great. Baz is our third. They are shy creatures though. Not ideal with children. If your family is thinking of getting one them they should check the various sites for info.
A vet told me that households should only have one cat at a time (a pity as we had four at that point.) The rationale was that cats live solitary lives in the wild and only come together for mating. Lions are the exception as they hunt large prey so need to hunt in groups. I'd always thought it was nice for cats to have company but on thinking about it, our cats weren't friends they avoided each other really.
Baz became a much happier boy when finally on his own. He'd been thoroughly intimidated by our tiny Abyssinian!

I think you are right Jane once out of the kitten stage, cats are probably happier on their own in a household, although siblings are often affectionate with each other.
We have often had two cats together ( unrelated ones) and they usually rub along alright, tolerate each other perhaps is more true, but with a very shy and nervous cat we once had, it became so much happier when the other cat died and was out of the picture.
Interesting what you say about the Birman, as DD's one adores our SIL and acts like a dog when he comes home from work, goes mad with joy.
my other DD and partner have no children, and there will never be any, so Maine Coons will be happy there.

We used to have a Turkish Van cat and he was a total nut job! still, I did love him.

Ooh Turkish Van cats are lovely. Did s/he swim? I'd read they had webbed paws.